Narayana Murthy stung Modi him badly on Saturday by coming out strongly against the rising intolerance in the country.

Why would Narayana Murthy a longtime supporter of PM, turn against him? For the record, he voiced a concern shared by many in the country. Writers, scientists, film makers and historians, among others, have come out in protest on the same issue.

On the very day Narayana Murthy spoke against divisive forces, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan also advocated tolerance and freedom though in a more academic language.

While Narayana Murthy is not alone in his critique, many Modi supporters smelt vendetta. They pointed out that PMO had angered Narayana Murthy by dropping his son Rohan from Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) in June.

CABE is the highest decision making education body in the country and Rohan was reportedly in the list sent by HRD to PMO for approval. The PMO approved the entire list but with one change - it replaced Rohan with Manish Sabharwal, the co-founder of Teamlease, reported The Economic Times.

Rohan, a Cornell University and Harvard University alumuni, is also the man behind theambitious Murty Classical Library of India.

Artist Poppy Jackson sitting nude sat on top of a London building - Twitter pic

November 1, 2015, NewsCrunch

A London artist stopped traffic at Commercial Street, Whitechapel, when she staged a novel performance art.

Artist Poppy Jackson sat on top of a building that houses Toynbee Studios completely nude and with her legs spread across the gable on Friday. Enduring cold and uncomfortable position, she sat for nearly four hours, taking only a couple of breaks, reports The Standard.

Passersby were taken aback by the curious sight as no explanation was immediately available on what was going on.

It came to be known later that the show was a performance art, titled "Site", and was part of an art festival that was being held at the same building.

The organisers of the festival released a statement explaining what the spectacle was all about:

The piece investigates questions relating to temporality, the body in site, representation and gender through consideration of the use of the body in performance as an activist practice."

Poppy Jackson was in news earlier for seeking contributions of menstrual blood for an art project.

The saree flash mob performance had been organised by an NGO Devditi (Video below)

November 1, 2015, NewsCrunch

A group of 50 saree-clad women performed a flash mob dance at Select City Walk, a mall in South Delhi to promote the use of saree.

A video of the performance shows them matching steps and moves to hit Bollywood numbers as the crowd taken by surprise cheers on enthusiastically. Uploaded on OCtober 28, it has been viewed more than 160,000 times.

The flash mob performance had been organised by an NGO Devditi, an organisation that works for women empowerment. They sought to send out a message that modern Indian women can come of age without abandoning their traditional wear, saree.

Saree is losing out on popularity as women see them as inconvenient drapes that hamper their free movement. But the flash mob dancers said if they could dance in saree anybody could work as well in them.

The hit script writing team developed plots for 25 movies over two decades, 21 of which went on to become huge hits. They were such stars they could even demand a share in the profit of the movies they conceived.

The top movies that defined the '70s - Seetha Aur Geetha, Deewaar, Sholay, Zanjeer and Don - came from their pens.

They turned Amitabh Bachchan into an angry young man. And he has said on record that after the duo split his career suffered.

So, why did they split? A new book Written by Salim-Javed The Story of Hindi Cinema’s Greatest Screenwriters (Diptakirti Chaudhuri, Penguin Books India) attempts an answer.

An excerpt of the book published by Scroll seems to give Salim Khan's version of it.

The split occurred on June 21, 1981, a date Salim Khan remembers as his second wife Helen's mother fell seriously ill on that day and passed away shortly.

After they finished a day-long session developing a story, Salim Khan got up to leave for his home.

Javed Akhtar followed him and said it was time to move in different directions. Salim Khan accepted the decision gracefully thinking that Javed Akhtar would have given the issue a serious thought and would not change his mind.

Javed Akhtar had planned the split in advance and was prepared better to handle it. He carried on without losing a beat. While Salim Khan, who was caught unawares, took five years to make a come back with Naam.

So why did they separate? Javed Akhtar may have thought that his contribution was bigger in the collaboration, given that he had also begun writing lyrics.

There were also an age difference between them- Salim Khan was full 10 years older than Javed Akhtar. They moved in different social circles, had different hangers on and were nit close friends.

A screenshot of Kusum Mehdele before she removed the boy with her feet (Video below)

November 2, 2015, NewsCrunch

Madhya Pradesh minister Kusum Mehdele landed in a controversy after she kicked a boy who had prostrated before her, in his head.

Kusum Mehdele had gone to Panna for an official function and was walking back to her car when the incident occurred.

A video shows a young boy in red shirt prostrating before her asking for some money. And she uses her feet to nudge him away making contact with his head. The people in her entourage further remove the boy and rough him up.

Photo of the boy who got kicked by the mP Minister

The minister, who is in charge of the animal husbandry department, continues to walk without missing a stride and gets on to her car.

What is shocking in the footage is the instinctive contempt Kusum Mehdele shows to a young citizen of this country. There were many ways to make the boy go away. And she chose the worst.

Daruwalla, 84, who is usually melodramatic with the press, said he would provide proof if anyone questioned his claim. He went on to show a photo, which shows Modi having his palm read, by the famous astrologer.

Daruwalla did not disclose when the photo was taken, but was willing to share his insight into PM's destiny.

Modi does not have lines on his palm, only mounts, according to Daruwalla. That makes him personally strong but given the weakness of his party, he may face problems.

Modi at Madison Square Garden: Several governments are uncomfortable with Modi reaching out to their citizens bypassing regular channels.

November 2, 2015, NewsCrunch

The Singapore government has sought to prevent its citizens from attending Modi's grand public reception when he visits the City-state on November 24.

An umbrella organisation of Indian associations, Singapore NRI Forum, has organised a huge rally for Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the massive 100,000 sqm Singapore Expo.

The Singapore Government has signalled that the event would be open only to Indian passport holders, who are on visa, and permanent residents of the city, reports The Telegraph. Singapore citizens, who wish to attend the rally, need to take prior permission from the authorities.

The registration form of the event at NAMO in Singapore, says "registration is open only for non-resident Indians"

The Telegraph notes that several governments are uncomfortable with Modi reaching out to their citizens bypassing regular channels. China had reportedly imposed a similar ban on its citizens when Modi addressed Indians during his visit.

After the restrictions came in place, Singapore's NRI bodies are doubtful of mobilising enough participants to fill up the Expo.

Non-IAS officers have made a common cause against the elite service and taken their grievance to social media.

Though tension between IAS and non-IAS services is an old feature of Indian bureaucracy, it has entered public domain for the first time as a no-holds barred slug-fest.

A series of tweets by All India and central services officers under the hashtags #parity4allservices and #iasnousainbolt have targeted what they describe as an apartheid system presided over by the IAS.

Central government officers have unsuccessfully sought parity with IAS for long.

IAS officers are paid more, promoted earlier and also empanelled for Central ministries far earlier in their careers.

IAS officers are apprehensive that the 7th pay commission may concede ground to lobbying by other officers and have started a campaign to protect their privileges, reports The Indian Express.

They have been writing protest letters to the Department of Personnel and Training against any move to bring in parity.

Sanjay Bhoosreddy, the head of the central IAS Association, was quoted comparing IAS to surgeons and other officers to physiotherapists hinting that they scored different marks in the UPSC exams.

But non-IAS officers counter that winning a gold medal once does not entitle anyone to an automatic gold medal in every competition in their life.

South African animal behaviourist Kevin Richardson has made several movies showing his amazing friendship with adult lions.

He can be seen petting them as if they are his household pets – he tugs them, rolls over with them, holds their head in his arms and scratches their chin.

The way a dog lover may play with his pack of animals, Kevin Richardson handles his lions.

Kevin Richardson manages a private reserve which hosts these lions. He has raised them personally and the relationship that was built when they were cubs has carried over into their adulthood. He does not get playful with the lions he did not raise as cubs.

Nevertheless, Kevin Richardson knows he is putting his life in danger each time he gets too close to these wild animals. But he says his movies raise awareness about lions and helps in their conservation.

Bollywood’s top star Shahrukh Khan, who turned 50 on Monday, came out strongly against the rising intolerance in the country in a Twitter townhall event.

“It's stupid to be religiously intolerant… Not being secular in this country is the worst kind of crime you can do as a patriot," he said.

The townhall was organised by India Today TV, whose senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai read out the questions fans were tweeting in real time.

Though the event began with routine questions on his movies and habits, it soon heated up with tweets pouring in on what Shahrukh thought about the current controversy that has grabbed headlines.

Shahrukh agreed that intolerance was growing in the country. He warned that youngsters would not accept an India, which was not secular, happy in its approach and allowing people to be what they were.

He also came out strongly in support of writers, who have returned their Akademi awards in protest. He described their action as brave, honest and clean.

Bollywood stars instinctively avoid controversial topics. Amitabh bachchan hadfamously said on camera that he did not know that beef had been banned in Maharashtra. Shahrukh is among the few exceptions, who do not mind taking a stand on sensitive issues.

Shahrukh defended Bollywod’s reluctance to become socially more relevant. "With great power comes great vulnerabilities," he said, pointing out that hundreds of people’s livelihood would be affected if his movies were stopped from screening by disgruntled elements.

A US army man has posted an adorable video of his three-year-old daughter discovering the meaning of the phrase - crying with happiness.

Nicholas Paugam was transferred from FortLewis to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which was 2,800 km away. While the professional packers tucked everything into boxes, Paugam’s three-year-old daughter Mckenzy’s stuffed toy giraffe went missing.

Over the next few days, the little girl missed her toy terribly and kept asking for it.

While unpacking, her mother Jenn found the toy in a box, and hid that in the refrigerator to surprise Mckenzy.

Mckenzy found it and was so choked with emotion she started crying and even asked why her eyes were watering.

It took some convincing to tell her that she was shedding happy tears.

Video: Watch Mckenzy, 3, finding her lost toy and asking why her eyes were watering

Indian Navy test-fired its main attack weapon, BrahMos, on Saturday. The cruise missile, which has a strike-range of over 290 kilometres, was fired from stealth destroyer INS Kochi, and hit a target ship in the Arabian Sea.

Mumbai Mirror reports that for the three hours on Saturday afternoon when the Navy tested Brahmos, the air space in the area remained shockingly open. That is, as the missile was on its way to hitting its target, performing extremely complex manoeuvres, commercial planes flew by in the vicinity.

The Navy had reportedly sent a communication to Air Traffic Control in Mumbai seeking no-fly zone in the area between 1230 hrs and 1530 hrs on Saturday.

The Navy, according to Mirror, failed to specify that it had Indian Standard Time in mind and ATC assumed that it meant Greenwich Mean Time.

ATC closed the airspace between 6 pm to 9 pm three hours after the exercise ended.

The team management took the security precaution to prevent any untoward incident reported Mid Day quoting sources close to the team. The team media manager, however, said there were no restrictions on any player.

Though Imran Tahir was keen to explore Mumbai with his wife Sumayya Dildar and 18-month-old baby boy Gibraan, he complied with the directive and stayed at the hotel.

South Africa played an ODI and also a two-day warm-up match against Board President's XI at Mumbai.

Imran Tahir played first class cricket for Pakistan and shifted to South Africa after marrying Sumayya Dildar, a South African of Indian descent, He has been been representing South Africa after becoming eligible to play for them when he met his four-year residence requirement in 2009.

A screenshot of Cyberabad Police's Anti-Chain Snatching Team members chasing chain snatchers

November 3, 2015, NewsCrunch

A police constable opened fire at fleeing chain snatchers in an unsuccessful attempt to stop them on Monday morning at Cyberabad.

As it turned out even the criminals had failed to snatch the chain as the alert victim held on to it. ﻿The incident, which was on camera, occurred at 11 am at Vanasthalipuram when two bike-borne men tried to snatch a gold chain off a local resident.

Two constables, who were on the road, Ravi and Narender, failed to nab them. Ravi then opened fire, despite which the chain snatchers managed to escape. .

Senior police officials told The Times of India that the constable should have been more cautious than resorting to shooting at a crowded area. The police are also not sure if the bullets hit any chain snatcher.

Ravi and Narender are part of the Cyberabad Police's Anti-Chain Snatching Team (ACST) and were deployed in civil dress to stop chain snatchers.

Video: Cyberabad cop opens fire at chain snatchers in crowded area and misses

Nehru was secular in the Western sense of the word, and out and out against RSS.

Patel thought that RSS had served Hindu society well and gave access to its leaders. He even agreed with it that there were sections of Muslims who were not loyal to India.

But that did not blind him to the true nature of RSS and saw it as an extremely communal force which could breakup the country.

“The activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat to the existence of the government and the state,” he wrote in a letter.

And India, he loved, and warned that he could fight his own son to protect it.

The Hindu has a report which brings out the ambivalent position Patel had towards RSS. It is based on his letters compiled in The Collected Works of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, edited by P.N. Chopra and Prabha Chopra.

Patel told Nehru that Gandhi was assassinated by Hindu Mahasabha, though RSS was guilty of celebrating his death. But he blamed RSS for spreading communal poison, of targeting Muslims, which as he maintained, eventually took Gandhi’s life.

When RSS was banned, its leaders were perhaps taken aback with the ferocity with which Patel went after them. He jailed RSS leaders, put sympathisers under surveillance not sparing even those as young as 15 years, says another report in the Sunday Standard.

He dismissed government servants who associated with the banned organsiation.

However, the ban on RSS lasted only a few months and Patel was receptive to the intermediaries, who came pleading RSS’ cause.

So, how does one come to terms with Patel’s stand on RSS? Patel felt that RSS could be reformed, made to have a written constitution and function openly. But he passed away before be could nudge the organisation in that direction.

The stoning took place in the village of Ghalmin on the outskirts of Firoz Koh, the provincial capital of Ghor. (Video below)

November 3, 2015, NewsCrunch

A video, which shows Taliban supporters stoning a young Afghan woman to death, accusing her of adultery, has gone viral.

The video obtained by Radio Free Afghanistan has shocked the world and brought back bitter memories of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, which saw a revolting suppression of women.

The two-minute clip shows a group of men throwing stones at the woman placed in a hole in the ground. Her pitiful cries and chanting of shahada, a Muslim prayer, can be heard as many onlookers pull out their cameras to record the horrifying incident.

The stoning took place in the village of Ghalmin on the outskirts of Firoz Koh, the provincial capital of Ghor.

Local officials identified the woman as a 19-year-old Rokhsahana, who had been married off against her will. She had then been caught while eloping with another man her age, which for Taliban amounts to adultery.

The man was let off after lashing, while the woman was stoned to death, as Taliban are known to hand out varying punishment for men and women for the same crime.